Hidden Affections (32 page)

His frustration mounted with the woman’s refusal to even say Annabelle’s name. “As long as you go alone, you’re free to go. I’m not planning to leave the house tomorrow. Use my coach,” he suggested, hoping to redeem himself a bit.

She furrowed her brow for a moment, as if she was trying to decide whether or not to accept his offer. “Thank you. That’s a good idea,” she replied and started slicing another apple.

“Do you think it’s a good idea if I go up to the garret and try to speak to Annabelle?”

This time, she glared at him. “I think you should leave a certain someone completely alone for a few days, whether those locks are on the sleeping room door or not. If I was free to remind you, which I’m not, you might consider it as just the beginning of the penance you’ll have to do for the rest of your life, assuming you don’t come to your senses,” she snapped and resumed her task.

Although he did not usually follow Irene’s advice, he took it now. “You can tell that certain someone that the locks aren’t necessary. When she’s ready to talk to me again, I’ll listen,” he promised and left to return to the main house.

As his footsteps echoed in the tunnel, memories of living here with Annabelle flashed through his mind. He once thought it was difficult to live here with two troublesome women; now he simply wondered how long it would take to get used to living here again with only one.

Annabelle knew Irene could be very clever, but she was still impressed when the woman actually managed to secure Harrison’s private coach to take her into the city the next morning. She also had Annabelle hiding inside, along with the canvas sack she filled, before the coach pulled away.

When they arrived in the city, slipping out of the coach without the driver seeing Annabelle proved to be a challenge. She managed to get herself, as well as her heavy bag, into the used clothing store she had visited once before without being spotted while Irene walked to a shop a few doors down on the opposite side of the street.

Relieved to find she had the shop to herself, she had no trouble trading all of her evening gowns and matching snoods for more suitable and durable day gowns. She had to agree to take half of what the shopkeeper originally offered and less half again to convince the woman to hold the evening gowns back for a month before putting them up for sale, but she was still more than satisfied.

With her new garments stuffed into the canvas bag and her heart racing in anticipation, she looked through the shop window and kept her eye on the coach, which was parked right outside the door. Once Irene returned with a bulky package, which Graham stored inside for her, she climbed in. Annabelle waited until he walked around the other side of the coach before she clambered in while he got back up to his seat.

Panting from the exertion of getting that heavy bag into the coach, she held the door closed with one hand to keep it from flying open. It wasn’t until the coach started moving again that her heart began to beat normally. “We did it!” she whispered, but Irene put her finger to her lips to warn her that even whispering to each other could spell disaster.

When the coach stopped the next time, Irene let herself out again but stayed to talk to Graham while Annabelle slipped out and hid behind the rear of the coach. She was pleasantly surprised to see that they had arrived in a very modest but clean working-class neighborhood that appeared rather deserted at midmorning. Annabelle was anxious to see the boardinghouse where she hoped to live just long enough to find a position listed in the newspaper that would take her far away from here.

Many of the redbrick homes that lined the narrow street were joined together, but there were a few free-standing houses. She assumed that most of the men and women who lived here were already at work, but smoke pouring out of some of the chimneys proved there were some people at home, and she longed to get out of sight. She did not know which home was Widow Plum’s boardinghouse, but she prayed the woman had recovered enough to take in boarders again. She also trusted Irene to recommend a place where Annabelle would be safe and no one would recognize her as the wife of Harrison Graymoor.

“Former wife,” she whispered and glanced down at the gold and platinum band on her finger she still wore to keep the staff from asking questions. She had had no reservations selling the wedding ring Eric had slipped onto her finger, but she had no intention of keeping this ring or the more expensive opal one—let alone selling them. Since she had no other funds to use to pay whatever it was going to cost to live in this boardinghouse, she resigned herself to taking some of the money from her divorce settlement and was frustrated that Harrison had taken it away from her.

When she finally heard Irene tell Graham to return for her in four hours, she was surprised to learn they would be here for that long. Irene walked with her to the door of the closest free-standing house.

“I have a very important errand of my own to tend to,” Irene offered. “I should be back in an hour. Two at the most.”

“Aren’t you even going to come inside to introduce me?”

Irene patted her arm. “You’ll do fine on your own. Just tell Prudence you’re my niece. She’s expecting you,” she said and started walking away.

“You don’t have a niece, do you?” Annabelle argued as loud as she dared without drawing undue attention to either one of them.

Irene chuckled. “No, but she doesn’t know that. I’ll explain everything to her once you’re out of the city.” She then hurried off.

Although Annabelle was tempted to run after her friend, she was more worried about getting out of sight. She noticed a small sign that read
Widow Plum’s Boarding House
next to the door. The widow’s name reminded her of how much Harrison disliked the taste of plums, and she knocked quickly to keep from stirring up any more bittersweet memories. Almost immediately she heard distant footsteps shuffling inside, and she waited for Widow Plum to answer the door instead of knocking again.

The door creaked open, revealing a rather tall, elderly woman with snow-white hair hanging down her back, country style, leaning heavily on an old gnarled branch she was using for a cane. She greeted Annabelle with a warm smile that revealed a missing front tooth and urged her inside. “I’m not taking guests at the moment, but do come in out of this dreadful cold. I’ve got water heating on the stove. I hope you’ll stay and at least share a pot of tea with me.”

Deeply disappointed that she would not be able to take a room here, Annabelle stepped into the front parlor, where sheets covered all of the furniture, and closed the door behind her. “I’m sorry to bother you, but Aunt Irene told me I might find accommodations here. She actually brought me here, but she had to leave on an errand. She should be back in a bit.”

“Oh! You must be Annabelle. I’ve been expecting you,” the woman gushed as she led her through the parlor. “I may not be taking boarders, but I always have room for someone as special as you are,” she insisted as they walked into a small dining room where the furniture had likewise been covered.

“Don’t mind all this,” the widow said between labored breaths. “I’ve been feeling so poorly these past few months that I haven’t been up to doing much housekeeping. Fortunately, my boarders were able to find other accommodations.” She tapped a door open with the tip of her cane and led Annabelle into a very warm kitchen.

The room was larger than Annabelle expected, but she stared at the narrow cot hugging the back wall where Widow Plum apparently had been sleeping. “I’m here by myself, so I haven’t bothered to waste precious firewood trying to keep any of the other rooms warm. Now that you’re here and I’m feeling up to taking the stairs once or twice a day, maybe I can sleep in my own bed tonight.”

Annabelle’s cheeks grew hot. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare.”

When the woman laughed, her clouded blue eyes almost twinkled. “I don’t blame you for being more than a little curious about that old cot,” she said and pulled a chair out from beneath a scarred wooden worktable. Once she plopped down, she rested her cane across her lap and sighed. “I’d tell you not to bother getting old, but you probably wouldn’t listen,” she teased before a coughing spell interrupted her.

When she finally caught her breath, she smiled at Annabelle. “I guess I’m not as recovered as I thought. A cup of tea right about now would really help, and the water should be hot enough by now. If I could bother you to get some tea out of a canister in that corner cupboard over there and add it to the teapot sitting next to the stove, I’d be grateful. I’ll get another cup and saucer ready for you.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Annabelle suggested. She slipped out of her cape and gloves and stored them on a peg by the back door. Following the woman’s directions, it did not take more than a few minutes to get a strong cup of tea ready for them, and she sat down to join her hostess at the table.

“You’re as dear as I thought you’d be,” Widow Plum crooned. “Then again, anyone related to Irene couldn’t be anything else. I know you’re only able to stay with me for a few weeks, but that suits me fine, too,” she said, then added four generous helpings of sugar to her tea and a dollop of cream.

Annabelle took a sip of tea, which she preferred without either sugar or cream. “I would very much like to stay, but I really should ask you how much you charge for a room. I don’t need a very large one.” She couldn’t help finding it a bit odd to be worrying about money again after having given it no thought for the past few months.

The widow set her teacup down. “I can’t charge you anything at all. Since I can’t pay you much for helping me set this old place back to rights again until I’m able to take in boarders again, your room and board are included. Didn’t Irene tell you that?”

“No. No, she didn’t,” Annabelle replied.

“If you save up your earnings instead of spending it, you should have enough to tide you over a short while. Hopefully you’ll be able to find a more permanent position before your funds run out. I’ll be glad to let you stay here without charge if it takes a bit longer than you expect.”

Annabelle dropped her gaze. “You’re very generous.”

“I can hardly be anything less. Not when people like Mr. Graymoor have been so good to me.”

Annabelle’s heart skipped a beat and her head snapped up. “Did you say Mr. Graymoor? Do you know him?”

“Only through Irene. I’ve never actually met the man, but you can rest assured that I was flabbergasted when he sent his driver to see me and gave me enough funds to make sure I could see a doctor and keep the boardinghouse, too. Without his help, I would have lost it for sure. I even sent him a note to thank him and to reassure him that I would repay him once I was up to taking in boarders again, but he wrote back to tell me the only way I could repay him would be to help someone else when they needed it. It may as well be you.”

Stunned to learn what Harrison had done for the widow, Annabelle wondered how generous he would be if he ever found out this woman was helping her.

They spent the next hour talking about Annabelle’s duties before Widow Plum gave her a tour of the house. Another hour passed before they returned to the kitchen, in part because the elderly woman had to walk so slowly. At this point, Annabelle was growing anxious for Irene to return.

When she finally heard a knock at the front door, she leaped to her feet. “That must be my aunt. I’ll let her in,” she insisted and rushed out of the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the parlor.

“I was getting worried about you,” she said once she opened the door, but she took one look at the man standing behind Irene and lost every thought in her head.

Irene stepped into the house but left the man standing outside. “Quick. Grab your cape. You have to leave right now. I’ll stay here with Prudence. If you don’t get back before Graham returns with the coach, I’ll have to leave, and you’ll have to find your own way back to Graymoor Gardens. Now scoot!”

Too shocked to do more than follow Irene’s order, she was terrified that Harrison might have gone into her room and discovered her missing. She raced back to the kitchen and grabbed her cape, not bothering to pick up the gloves that had fallen out of the pocket while she rushed back to the front door.

Philip was still waiting for her on the steps, and he had her inside a rented hack before she had her wits about her. She collapsed into her seat as the coach started off.

Poor Philip. Even in the dimness that enveloped both of them, he appeared to be very worried about her. Upset at Irene for involving him, she sighed. The last thing she wanted was to come between the two men, and she hoped Harrison would find a way to reconcile with his cousin.

“Before you leap to conclusions or get annoyed with Irene for coming to speak to me about your situation, let me reassure you that she’s very loyal to you as well as to my cousin. Don’t worry. I’m sure he has no idea you left Graymoor Gardens and came into the city.”

She resisted the urge to pull back the curtain on the window next to her to see if Harrison was following them or to tell Philip how disappointed she was that Irene had brought him to the boardinghouse. “H-how can you be so certain?”

“If my cousin had any idea you were gone, he’d be turning this city upside down to find you. He’d create such a ruckus in the process, we both would have heard him by now,” he teased.

“Perhaps,” she admitted.

“He’d make an even bigger ruckus if he found out you were sitting here all alone with me.”

She narrowed her gaze, but she still could not see his features clear enough to suit her. “You’re his cousin. Why would he care?”

He reached over and took her hand. “Because my cousin knows that I have very deep feelings for you. My first loyalty is to Harrison, but now that Irene has told me he’s foolishly set you aside, I no longer feel compelled to deny my feelings. I care for you, Annabelle, and I don’t want you to leave Philadelphia. Not alone.”

Horrified that Irene had betrayed her trust and confided in him, she was more alarmed by his tenderly spoken words and eased her hand free. She was also very confused by his declaration and shook her head. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

He took her hand again and held it clasped between his own. “I know it’s too soon for you right now, but I want you to know that I’m prepared to wait as long as it takes.”

Even more confused, she asked, “Wait for what?”

He cleared his throat. “Even if you don’t have feelings for me now, I can only hope and pray that one day, when you’re no longer bound to my cousin, that you’ll consider . . . that you might agree to become my wife.”